Singapore has emerged as a bowling powergouse, winning its second gold medal in the sport in the women’s doubles on Wednesday.

The women’s singles gold medalist Daphne Tan and her partner Bernice Lim helped Singapore beat the odds to defeat the defending champion Son Yun-hee and Hwang Yeon-ju 441-393 in the final.

The gold saw the country top the medal table in bowling with two gold and two bronze medals, ahead of Korea with one gold, two silver and two bronze medals. Tan, who became the country’s first double gold medalist of the competition, attributed the win to her partner.

“I am very grateful for my partner, she carried me all the way to the finals,” she said.

Lim was the one to watch in the final, rolling three straight strikes to finish with strong 246 for the title.

“Daphne and I are both enjoying ourselves and having fun here, and we’re happy to bring the gold back to our country,” 20-year-old Lim said.

The Singaporen duo had defeated their compatriots New Hui Fen and Ng Su Yi Geraldine 372-357 in the semifinals.“Meeting my own team was rough, (it‘s) lucky we made it to the finals. I made a mistake but my partner carried me to the finals,” 21-year-old Tan said.

Despite finishing one-two in the qualifying rounds, the Koreans settled for the silver medal, blaming the knock-out game system in this completion.

“It’s great disappointment. I think no one can predict the result because we play knock-out one game from quarter finals,” Hwang said after losing to the Singaporeans.

Double-gold medalist Tan said she was now looking to go for her third title when the team’s preliminary rounds begin tomorrow.

“We are definitely strong as a team. We will do our best for tomorrow.”

By Oh Kyu-wook and Kim Joo-hyun Kim
(596story@heraldcorp.com, jully27@heraldcorp.com)